Psychology Profiling in SILENT HILL: SHATTERED MEMORIES

I came across this and I just have to share. I have to applaud developers that take extra steps to understand their players and have the game play adjust accordingly. I have never played Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, but apparently the mechanics for assessing and adapting to player psychology was successful.

My dissertation is all about gaining a greater understanding of players through psychology and I will hopefully post more details soon. Overall, I think this is a good direction for games to go in (not in the exploitative Farmville way, but in the customization/enhance experience way.)

I have seen other attempts at linking personality and player types. Bateman and Boon’s (2005) 21st Century Game Design is a good source on using Myer-Briggs typologies. I personally have tried using the Big Five, like the developer in the video, and had mixed results. I have come to think that we have to look at more than just personality to really understand players, but it is fascinating to see practical and successful use of personality types in game development.